The document summarizes a preliminary film evaluation task conducted by a class. It discusses the key elements that were required, including different shot types and following the 180-degree rule. It describes how a group of three students storyboarded, planned, and filmed their scene at their school. They encountered some location issues but were able to improvise. Overall, they felt the process went well and that they were able to apply film techniques and gain experience to build upon for future projects.

1. Preliminary Evaluation<br />The preliminary task is vital. It is the key elements needed for us as a class to feel as though we are able and capable of actually composing our own film products.<br /> Conducting a preliminary task itself is fairly simple as we were giving guidelines to follow. There are elements of film techniques that we have to include. Shots we have to include are: - shot/reverse shot, 180 shot and a close up’s. <br />The whole piece must be about two people having a conversation of some sort, whilst the camera follows much of the main protagonists actions leading up to the conversational meeting. This has to include opening a door, and a shot of the action on the other side of the door. Whilst the characters are having a conversation we are to comply with the 180-degree rule. This rule means that the camera must not cross the imaginary line set at 180 degrees opposite the central focus, which is the characters. It can move across in a semi-circle in the area, set aside by the line but it must not at any point cross it. I gathered from learning this rule that it set a good area of focus for the camera, and that it could focus on both characters at the same time whilst being able to focus on one at a time, when the camera moves differently. This is important, in order to get good shots and portray the story fully.<br /> We have to include these factors in order to comply with the standards set for preliminary tasks. They are quite simple to achieve, but our individual execution is key. I am working with two characters, of which I am very comfortable with. Anisha and Riham. They are really easy to work with and we work well together in a team as we all feed off each other’s ideas. As our product was conducted at school we were able to meet each other more frequently, to plan how to conduct our piece. Whilst being at school we had meetings. In the meeting we mind mapped our ideas against the guidelines set, as we suggested ideas to each other the effectiveness of the session grew. We didn’t want to broaden our ideas too much to overload ourselves, so in the end we settled with a simple idea that would fit in easily with our chosen location. <br /> The location we had chosen was the school, simply because we didn’t have much time to conduct the task and it was the nearest accessible place we could reach. Producing/ filming the task was very fun. As we had been very organised everything was in order we knew where to go, who to use and how to use our equipment. There were a few hick ups concerning location as a majority of the class were using similar places as us , but we over came and improvised. <br /> We were able to be so organised, as we had seen a lot of previous AS preliminary task examples, and had researched into editing techniques. A lot of what was used in them was very helpful and very insightful. It gave use an extra idea of what we could include. Importantly by watching the examples, we were able to see how the characters acted, and generally gave us pointers on how to act realistically, to make our tasks look believable. By researching into editing techniques not only were we increasing our learning, but we were increasing our possibilities. By learning the techniques we would be able to use some combine features of some and apply them to future products we make. They were very helpful, as we learned how it might be done professionally and easily. <br /> By story boarding we were able to apply each of the technical features as well as acting and location information onto paper. This would definitely enable us to be efficient and organised with what we were doing. Our storyboard was our own guideline to follow, and help u through our production process immensely.<br /> Personally I think the whole filming process went quite well. We knew what we were doing; we applied the correct techniques, although much of it will have to be edited given that we are amateurs. Although a lot of the footage is amateur a lot of it is quality. The acting is good and we have portrayed our story that we are trying to get across effectively. Overall I think we have long to go but we have made a very good start, that will enable us to build upon skills learnt now for the future.<br />